Testing for Podcasting

Testing 123

The Final Round

I have made it to the final project. This has been a very engaging journey. I do wish all of my courses were interactive.I am not much of a social media person or a gaming person, but Second Life allows me to be creative. I keep thinking it is too bad I cannot teach my grade level with this tool. Mostly I have been building personal type items, but I dream of building my custom made classroom. I think about how my collegues might enjoy professional development more in this setting.

I have had a lot of fun with the final project. My theme
is Van Gogh's paintings. i have tried to depict The Yellow House and The Bedroom in Arles in 3D. My intial work was building, but I wanted this space to be a lesson in analyzing art work. I am especially proud of the bedroom. My hope is that when you come into the setting, you feel as though your are in Arles and that you can walk into the "Bedroom" painting. I imagined what else would be in the Yellos House.I created a small area with a sink, stove,
table, and chairs. The furniture isn't the right period, but I like that I did it myself.


Besides the eat-in kitchen, I also created a secret hidden courtyard. It looks very green and has a beautiful fountain.

What I Learned From the Second Life Wiki

I am looking around the SL Wiki, searching for what interest me. I notice Sample Classroom Spaces. One of my dreams is to build my ideal classroom. So of course, I have to check it out.
Well I visited a few places and I liked some of what I saw.

One classroom looked very traditional.







Most of the other places resemble business meeting areas and not classrooms. The following area had features that we are familiar with in an online course.



The last site I visited was also more like visiting a business conference room, but of the three, I liked it the best.

The Fall Festival Booth

As always I enjoy creating in Second Life. This particular project touched me because i dedicated it to my Mama. She loved decorating for Halloween. I am not a Halloween fan so when she lived with me I gave her a hard time about decorating. She is gone and I miss her, but I remember how she loved Fall and Halloween.I tried to think a little differently. I still don't think I have grasped the "out of the box" concept just yet. I think as I learn more about the tools that are available to me, my mind will open up. Trying to make leaves on the tree was a challenge. thinking back I think another shape would have been better to use. I also learned that you can link only so many pieces together. I started playing with the sculpted shape to make the trunk and limbs of the tree. Those sculpted shapes hold a lot of potential. I hear there are other types of sculpted shapes. That also will be interesting to explore. I love the colors of fall. I miss that about St. Louis. In my original mental plan for my tree, I wanted the leaves to fall. I will have to look into that someday.

Exploring Second Life for Educational Purposes

I finally traveled outside of my home island. I was hoping to find areas that I could use for educational purposes. Since I am an Art teacher, I thought I would look for famous landmarks in different countries. i do not anticipate traveling out of country anytime soon so I thought I would travel in Second Life. I also wanted to find picturesque scenes that inspire.
I did find Paris and eventually the Eiffel Tower. I found it a challenge to see because it was so big. I wanted a close up picture of me on the tower, but that didn't seem possible to do.



The next place I visited was influence by Persia. I thought the rugs, carpets, and art were very nice. What surprised me is that I found an area that is meant for public education. But still, it was beautiful.

Reflections on Education in Second Life

I like the strategies given in this list. Especially, building the Art gallery and building a Historical scene. I am starting to think along the lines of how I could use Second Life as an educational tool. I visited the Second Life wiki an found a lot of interesting things to check out. The Q and A section answered a lot of questions that I have. Here is a quick version of the answers I have been looking for. I also found a series on learning how to script. Project ideas of Real Life students was very interesting. I am reading a summary of research and I have to agree with some of their conclusions. Based on my own experience I agree with their findings. One student they interviewed thought that Second Life is a good companion for BB.I think SL makes for a good online course. I consider my own course involving Second Life to be one of the mowt interesting one I have ever taken.

Second Life in Education

My Reflection: What Second Life Taught Me About Learning
I have heard about VARK and I did answer the questionnaire, but I forgot what type of learner I am. It certainly makes me want to go back and get that information again. My first thought while reading this article was whether or not they make a version for K through 2 students. I would love to know the learning styles of some of my students. This very morning I observed two of my students doing a reading activity. When I reflect back, I would guess that the little girl was a read/write learner. I would love to know what type of learner the little boy is.
Another thought I has is if there will be online classes for children of this age? Would they understand how to navigate for learning in an online environment? I speculate that they would be good at learning online. what would concern me more is their social development. I believe Second Life will come to have a significant role in education.
My Reflection: Reflection: Teaching with Second Life
Being somewhat in the Art world and the Education world, I could see Second Life being an excellent tool in both. what this article made me think about is practicing my art skills in Second Life. I recently visited a museum in Second Life. Before my visit I had not considered creating sculptor or paintings in world. I loved the curator's digital paintings. I think this would be a good way for me to get back to my own art.
My Reflection: Engaging the YouTube Google-Eyed Generation:Strategies for Using Web 2.0 in Teaching and Learning
This article was very interesting to me. I hope to use some of these suggestions. It certainly makes me think. I teach K-2 Art. That really doesn't gibe me much bases for this type of teaching, yet. I do think it is possible to incorporate these practices into my grade level and my subject. The weak link at this moment is me, but I am getting stronger. I know my students use texting on cell phones. they probably use email. They definitely play games and do academics on the computer. the only thing stopping my children from learning in this manner is lack of knowledge, funds, and equipment. My students were born ready for Web 2.0 learning.
My Reflection: SL Etiquette
I remember viewing this when I first experienced Second Life, but I have to say that they had escaped me. Most of these guidelines are common sense to me. If you conduct your life in a proper manner, then it wouldn't be any different in a virtual life.

Learning in a Virtual World

Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World
The First Class: Orientation
This description sounds a lot like my own class. Your not overwhelmed because my instructor takes slow and easy.
Overcoming Fear and Uncertainty
I like the way he solves this problem. I was very apprehensive on my first visits to Second Life, but my instructor got me through it, I believe in a similar fashion. She took me slow and told me to hang in there.
Content That Comes to Life
Oh boy does it come to life. After I got over my apprehension, I discovered something I really like. Building. I can build a house in Second Life. There's probably no chance of me doing that in real life. It also gives me opportunity to think about this process in ways i never have before. i didn't even know I was interested in how to build a house.
Location, Identity , and Roles: How Virtual Are They?
I never thought about this before, but maybe that was a part of my initial timidness with Second Life. I didn't want to be in a world where people weren't who they say they were. Who was this person really? What other lies would they tell me? We somewhat know each other in our course, so I don't get this atmosphere from my university or this usage of Second Life.
Class in a Virtual World: A Case Study
Solving problems is more of how I want to teach. That is what makes me want to explore this avenue more.
Virtual Worlds: Enhanced Learning
I agree totally with that concept. Of all of my courses, I think I have enjoyed my course involving SL the most.

My Unique Building Project

I started this project knowing exactly what I wanted to do. There was quite a path between knowing what I wanted and what I actually knew how to do. I wanted to create a ghost. I thought I understood the "Features" tab a little bit. I now know that the features tab will only work on certain shapes. I played with it a lot, finally getting somewhat of the image I wanted. Next I was wondering how I was gonna get it to float. At first is was dropping like a log.

At one point I was so frustrated, I started a new project. I made flags. Then I changed the color of the flags.

I eventually came back to my ghost and started working again. Another thing I had a problem with was the floating text. I put floating text above my ghost, than I wanted to take it away. I thought I could just delete the script, and I would disappear. That was not the case. I had to put the script in and then not type anything in the parentheses. That little lesson took a couple of hours. As a matter of fact I would not have thought this ghost would take as long as it did. It still isn't exactly like I would like, but it is close.

My Introduction to Second Life

Activity #1 My First Visit to Fontbonne Island
This wasn't my first visit to Fontbonne Island. In fact, this visit was the complete opposite of my first visit.The first time I was inworld, I was very apprehensive about Second Life. This time I was thinking about how I missed the potential of Second Life because I hadn't been here in a while. I did learn something in the first vieit. I learned how to land without falling flat on my face. That is what stands out the most from that meeting.

Activity #2 My Avatar Gets a Complete Makeover
I just recently changed the look of my avatar, so I went with a look that is totally radical for me.


Activity #3 My Field Trips
Of the three field trips I liked Virtual Harlem the most. MacBeth scared me for whatever reason. I did not stay long. It was so quick, I forgot to take a picture. So I went back and took a picture today. At the pet site I couldn't find the type of dog I would like to own. I did spend much time there either. I also had to go back and take a picture. I am sure you can tell by my pictures, what I liked the most about Virtual Harlem. Wheeeeee!




Activity #4 My Avatar Eixplores the World on His and Her Own
When I first started coming to Second Life, I was very apprehensive to say the least. The ISTE cite was the first place I visited besides Fontbonne Island. I learned a lot there and I was comfortable.

I love looking at furniture. Especially now since I am moving. The piece you see in the Furniture Land picture is something I need for real in my new apartment. When I am in world, I come here a lot.

I tried to go someplace new so I saw "Lincoln Memorial". I teleported to the location and really couldn't understand what i was looking at. It certainly did not look like the Lincoln Memorial. Turns out it looks like it is a log cabin of some sort. I wasn't excited about this location.

Activity #5 My Avatar Learned A Lot
I explored Fontbonne Island a little. I was checking out things I hadn't done before.I rode a bike.:-D. Below is the pictures from that adventure.